PewDiePie apologises for saying the N-word, but why the F did he say it?

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Monday 11 September 2017

Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, the highest-paid YouTuber in the world, has apologised after saying the n-word during a live broadcast of him playing a video game. "I don't mean that in a bad way," he said – and bearing in mind PewDiePie is a gangly white 27-year-old and not a rapper, what possible way could that way be good?

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Sorry to go all Mum On The Internet, but seriously: why did he say this in the first place? What's wrong with screaming "F***ing f***ing f***!" like a normal person?

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I've played video games my whole life, and have lost count of how many times I have sworn while dying in a level/failing to catch a star/so nearly getting to the end in time but then not. And you know what I've never said? The n-word. Or the j-word. Or any word that has to be reduced to an initial. Somehow the urge to use slurs against black, Jewish, LGBT people or redheads, whether "in a bad way" or a positively angelic way, has completely managed to pass me by. Where's my hero badge! Surely the Girl Guides must be summoning me for an inspirational talk for resisting the urge to be a massive racist.

This isn't a casual one-off for Kjellberg, whose previous is getting to the point where you can't go "Oh we all say random old nonsense under pressure". He was temporarily banned from Twitter for "joking" about joining Islamic State. And there was the time earlier this year when he hired people to wave banners saying "Death to all Jews" in a video. Lol!

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Earlier this year he was dropped from Disney's network of YouTube stars over the videos, which featured Nazi and anti-Semitic content ranging from fan-drawn swastikas to Kjellberg playing the Nazi Party anthem and doing a Hitler salute.

All through these incidents, Kjellberg has said his actions are a "joke". This man is hardly Louis Theroux. In a response to criticism over the banners, he said he was "trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online" and that people "would say anything for five dollars". Or more specifically, people with money, power and a platform will exploit people who need five dollars.

Kjellberg said it was "laughable" to suggest he supported the banners' ideology, but added that "though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive". He understands – but he still makes them.

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Kjellberg has been a huge hit on YouTube, earning around $15m through the channel in 2016. However even YouTube has had enough: it has cancelled the release of his new series, Scare PewDiePie2, and dropped him from its Google Preferred scheme, which highlights advertiser-friendly content creators – which Kjellberg arguably no longer is. And while freedom of speech is crucial, it's entirely right that the people behind Kjellberg's biggest of bucks are showing that his "provocative" videos have gone too far.

But the point that still niggles with me is why he said that slur in the first place. However unconscious, you can only say things like that if, at some level, you think it's a perfectly okay thing to say. We've got a racist old monster in the White House, supporting white supremacist marchers as "some very fine people" – now more than ever is the time to pull up white people who think, "Really, what's wrong with saying these words?" Everything. Everything is wrong.

In December last year, Kjellberg threatened to shut down his YouTube channel – the platform's biggest – over proposed changes to the site. Whatever he decides to do, it's time he has a serious rethink about what he's doing – and why.